Office of Independent Review

ByREX DALTON |February 3, 2017

A plan by Orange County supervisors to hire a former state prosecutor to be the director of the county's Office of Independent Review has been scuttled. Supervisors apparently jumped gun on announcing the deal, and now are back to square one in their search.

Orange County supervisors announced Tuesday that they've picked Gary Schons, a prosecutor with decades of experience investigating public corruption in Southern California, to head the county's Office of Independent Review.

For the past nine months, Orange County's watchdog agency has been left without a director. But that could change with a possible vote Tuesday by county supervisors to appoint the new head of the Office of Independent Review.

Amid an ongoing scandal over misuse of jailhouse informants, Sheriff Sandra Hutchens received unanimous approval from county supervisors to hire a “constitutional policing” advisor who would report directly to her.

With the head of the county's Office of Independent Review abruptly resigning last week, and problems ranging from a "failure of leadership" in the DA's office to jailbreaks on Sheriff Sandra Hutchens' watch, bringing in federal investigators might be the only prudent thing to do.

The proposal expands the Office of Independent Review's purview, which is now limited to the Sheriff’s, Department to also include the District Attorney’s office, Probation Department, Public Defender’s office, and Social Services Agency.

Tony Rackauckas has gone public with his opposition to an effort to expand county supervisors’ oversight of his office. Whether there’s enough support for the expansion should be revealed during today's supervisors meeting.

Meeting focused on whether the purview of the Office of Independent Review, which is currently limited to the Sheriff's Department, should also include the District Attorney and other agencies related to law enforcement.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors was planning to show Office of Independent Review head Steve Connolly the door by the end of this month. But the board is now scheduled to give him another four months.

Judge David O Carter this week demonstrated real leadership on combating homelessness by getting out into the field and challenging county officials to focus public resources on meeting immediate needs of riverbed residents. Yet will this rare focus last? Could receivership of federal and state funds coming into the County of Orange be on the horizon?

Rashad Al-Dabbagh, who lives in Anaheim and is the founder/director of the Arab American Civic Council, criticizes a decision last week by the U.S. Census Bureau that the 2020 Census would not include a new “Middle Eastern or North African” category in its race and ethnicity data collection for the 2020 Census.

Orange County supervisors step up their attack on public comment at their regular public meetings by pushing taxpayers to the end of their meeting agenda. The change means offering public comment to county supervisors will take hours of waiting.